Peace One Day

Please go to the Peace One Day website and watch the amazing video from the founder of the Peace One Days, the film maker Jeremy Gilley. Peace Day occurs every 21 September and it is a day when, if everyone just stops fighting even for that one day, vaccinations can be performed, aid moved, people fed and people saved. Please, just watch the video and make your pledge.

Z is for Zoo

I used to volunteer for a zoo. Not feeding the animals or anything like that, although many people would like that sort of thing, not me, I’d worry more about becoming the animal food. Anyway, it was a really interesting experience, I was one of those people who did the ‘education stuff’ around the various exhibits. However three things occurred which meant that I no longer wanted to do it;

1. I’d just started a partime Masters, so I had enough of my plate, but I would have found time somewhere if it weren’t for the following two factors -
2. The food in the staff canteen was well and truly gross, honestly I’d swear the animals were fed better. All very well but there was no where else to get food from.
3. The other volunteers I worked with weren’t the nicest people in the world, I was the youngest volunteer by far, most of the others retired or at least reaching retirement age. They used to sit there and make fun of my day job which was at that point labelling test tubes, which ok is a pretty ridiculous job but you don’t make fun of a fellow colleague you barely know, I just could not be bothered spending my increasingly precious spare time with people like that.

So, I left, but one thing I’ll always miss is that walk through the zoo just before it opens, deathly quiet compared to the hub bub of opening hours, before opening hours all you’d hear was the chatter of the monkeys or the roar of the lions. You’d walk past them and they’d be curious in you, not yet numbed by the repetitive boredom of the countless faces peering at them that day.

I’ve also been left with an appreciation of what (good) zoos do. They truly are modern day arks, doing their best to battle against mankind’s malignant influence in the outside world. It gets my goat when people complain about how expensive a visit to the zoo is, zoos are businesses, they have to pay their staff, feed and care for their animals, with little or no support bar the people that come through those gates. Plus a good zoo will be doing so much more than that, working in the animals natural environment to preserve what is left of it, all on principally the money that is coming through those gates. Worth it isn’t for the price of a pricey (but fun) day out?

So that’s it then, I’ve reached Z, the end of the encyclopedia of me. Some of the letters have really scraped the barrel for connections to me but I’m proud of myself I’ve done it! To see how others have fared in the encyclopedia of me, please check out Bella Dia’s blog which has a list of everyone participating.